Digital media includes software, music, movies, literature, and other forms of digital content. The digital media industry and other digital media owners that distribute digital media have implemented business models that rely on their ability to collect a fee from consumers for each copy or use of a digital work. Presently, once initial distribution of the media has occurred, the unauthorized reproduction or piracy by consumers of the digital media, which is often protected by copyright, constitutes a threat to the viability and profitability of the digital media industry.
Therefore, the digital media industry has begun implementing Digital Rights Management (DRM) or digital restriction management, as it is less frequently referred, to manage and enforce particular controls and restrictions associated with the use of digital media. Existing DRM solutions including content scrambling systems, hardware dongles, product activation, and digital watermarking have proven ineffective. Therefore, a need exists for providing DRM of digital media that allows the controlled or restricted rendering of arbitrary forms of digital content, where the controls and restrictions are flexible and definable by the media owner.